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Winning can be measured different ways. I've owned both devices simultaneously (recently switch Verizon HTC incredible to iPhone ).

Android app store outright sucks. Many minor usability things on android are annoying. I don't think Android is 'winning' but I do think they are shipping a lot of handsets. IMO there is a distinction.

Chevy 'wins' over Bentley. Which would you rather drive?




Chevy 'wins' over Bentley. Which would you rather drive?

Which would you rather buy? And this is important, with things like the $350 Vizio tablet. Bentley's are nice, but I wouldn't buy one.

And given this is a dev focused site -- do you want to make accessories that work in Chevys or Bentleys?


It depends. If the Chevy drivers don't buy as many accessories as the Bentley drivers do, you better believe I'll be selling to Bentley drivers. And if those Bentley drivers use their accessories more, all the better.

There may be more Android phones, but mobile web usage of iOS (or even just iPhone) dwarfs that of Android. Ditto with app purchasing/usage.


In the U.S. Android web share overtook mobile iOS (including 10% iPod Touch, but not any tablet share) yesterday:

http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-US-daily-20110518-20110...

Globally it looks set to overtake in the next few weeks (it's a couple of percent above just iPhone, but 4.5% iPod Touch share keeps mobile iOS slightly ahead), though both are trailing Symbian by some distance on that global measure.


Funny, all the stats I've seen show a completely different trend. Example:

http://www.netmarketshare.com/2010/07/01/iOS-vs-Android-in-B...

UPDATE: Ahh, I see the problem. You linked to a OS market share graph, not a browsing market share. I didn't dispute there are more Android devices, I said the iOS devices are used to browse the web much more than the Android devices, even if they are fewer. Also, not including iPad share by StatCounter is silly. The iPad's browsing share is quite large.


It's not sales or installed base share, it's browser share.

I could put the difference down to just iPads, which apparently have much higher browsing rates than mobile devices, but the numbers don't agree there either e.g. my source has iOS as lower than Linux whereas your numbers has it as twice as high.

(Once you add iPad numbers you start to wonder why netbooks aren't included and then the fact that iOS and Android numbers total are dwarfed by any single version of IE begins to make it seem ridiculous.)


Why not both? Or just pick the one ypu're better with?

I don't get why fanboys of each platform wants the other to die... The worst thing that could happen is a smartphone platform monopoly... Hello stagnation... Hello nineties...


To be clear, I completely agree with you. I was just pointing out that this Chevy v Bentley analogy wasn't this slam dunk where everyone just says, "Of course a Bentley, Chevy sucks".


It wasn't meant to be a "slam dunk". I was trying to illustrate that some people define "win" by sheer volume, some define "win" by panache and polish and things like that.

Depending on how you want to measure it, Chevy or Bentley, Android or iOS, both "win" for some definition of "win".


And given this is a dev focused site -- do you want to make accessories that work in Chevys or Bentleys?

Depends on the accessories I want to sell.


The important metric is dollars.

According to a random internet article, iPhone accounts for less than 3% of phones shipped, but 40% of the profits.

iPhones make more dollars.

edit apparently Apple's mobile market share is up to 4% with more than 50% of the profits.


>Chevy 'wins' over Bentley. Which would you rather drive?

Haha, I used a similar metaphor and posted at almost the same time. Great minds think alike?


"Chevy 'wins' over Bentley. Which would you rather drive?"

I want to use that. It's applicable to more than just phones and cars.




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